Heading up the rocky escarpment toward the pass on the shoulder of Finger Peak. This is a seldom-used pass that, as far as we know, has never had a name. We carefully picked our way up through the jumble of boulders, bedrock, and snow toward the summit with our old school Kelty packs.
Looking down south toward Mount Whitney. Somewhere out there looms several 14,000+ foot peaks.
Finally up on the pass! This is fun!
Alas, we won’t be going this way. The north face of the pass was an icy snow chute with little purchase for our boots. We decided not to try and chance a decent, especially since we weren’t sure if we could get over the pass that drops into Black Cap Basin above Cathedral Lake. If we had managed to get down into this basin, we could have become trapped and might have had to go down Disappearing Creek or the Gorge of Despair to get back out again.
Looking toward the notch above Cathedral Lake. My guess is that it is full of snow and completely impossible to get through without serious ice climbing gear.
Looking up at Finger Peak.
There are many beautiful unnamed lakes in this basin. Mount Goddard rises in the background along with The Black Divide.
Ice and snow everywhere. It’s still too early in the season to get through this pass.
Looking back down into Blue Canyon.
What a crazy, beautiful world it is up here.